Getting Inspired

Companies cannot become successful merely by copying each others ideas. The video above talks about having the drive to succeed, pushing a company beyond what's "good enough" and into "inspired thinking." The tipping point is called the "Margin of Difference" (MoD) and companies should strive to achieve it.

By achieving the MoD, a company's products will improve, ideas will flow freely, and focus on objectives will improve.

Ability to achieve the margin of difference is based on the quality of:

1. Social Networks
2. Social Capital
3. Conversations
4. Engagement Process
5. Individual Thinking (the way an employer and their employees think & work)

Social networks connect you to the people and information you need. Contributors to a company's network can be unconventional; any stakeholder that has a vested interest in the business. Organizations that reach the MoD have inspired social networks.

Social capital is the reputation and goodwill within and outside of the workplace. It builds upon itself and is only obtained by building trust, respect, and building rapport.

Conversations within the organization must have strong purpose and convey meaning in an easy-to-understand manner. Rich conversation can stimulate innovation within an organization.

"Engagement process is all the activities and venues through which we interact." They can either have a positive or negative impact.

Individual Thinking is the foundation underlying the entire principle Margin of Difference. Inspired individual thinkers possess the drive to focus on their objectives, rather than their fears. These employees and individuals are crucial to helping achieve the MoD.


The bottom line:
Organizations that strive for excellence and that operate at the Margin of Difference will gain a competitive advantage, especially in their collective thought processes. Companies and organizations that operate at this level are constantly moving forward, rather than spinning their wheels in the same place.

Collaboration and Collective Intelligence

In this MIT lecture, many topics are covered such as: the commercialization of social media, collective intelligence in Second Life, and the power of Collective Imagination in children's media, such as Pokemon.

In the case of commercialization of social media, I learned that end-users are a captive audience. There are little to no exit-strategies that users can partake in. To leave a social network, like Facebook, would mean leaving your friends and networks behind. I am a Facebook user myself, and have often questioned the different things that the platform does with user content. There have been numerous times that I have disagreed with their practice and changes to the interface. One of the biggest objections I had to Facebook, was the addition of Facebook Ads. I believe that this is what Trebor Scholz was referring to in this lecture. Since there is great cost to maintaining a site like Facebook, there ultimately has to be some way to pay for it. Unfortunately, even though it is thought to pay the bills, companies like Facebook and MySpace that have chosen to profit off of their users. Trebor argues for a non-profit platform where users have genuine control over their content.

Second Life is a fascinating tool that can be used for collaboration and socialization. There are very many things that are built in the world, entirely by users or corporations, and often collaboratively. In the video, Cory Ondrejka mentioned an example of how Starwood collaborated with users who were interacting with Starwood group's hotel, which was built in Second Life. Starwood listened to users' feedback, and made changes to it's real-life model.

Collective imagination is why Pokemon became so popular and successful. Since there are so many different characters, with different personality types, players have an easy time of telling stories about their Pokemon and building relationships upon that. Collective imagination has less to do with collaboration, but in some way, it is a form of collaboration within a social network about a pre-defined characters with stories and personalities behind them. There is a Pokemon game series that even builds upon the stories behind the monsters, called Mystery Dungeon. It would not be farfetched to find Pokemon fans making up their own stories about their favorite characters.



Personal note:
I believe that Pokemon is not just for children, but for all ages. It is generally believed by mainstream media that Pokemon is generally a childrens' game. However, there are many layers of complexity to it, and the games can be enjoyed by all ages. This is why I refer to stories about Pokemon as "players stories," because anyone of any age could tell a story if they wanted to.

Zappos and delivering happiness

Zappos is a company that prides itself on providing the best customer service possible. The philosophy is to deliver happiness to every customer; they are even willing to direct customers to other websites that offer lower prices. This is because they know that, even though they may have lost a sale, providing a good customer experience will lead to one potential customer telling their friends about their positive experience. Having good customer service builds competitive advantage because customers are likely to remember the positive experience they had when speaking to a customer service representative. The customers, in turn for being treated well, respect and trust the company by recommending it to family and friends. This is an excellent example of increasing returns.

Delivering happiness is also ingrained in Zappos's culture. They want employees to be compatible with the company culture and employ their employees based on the compatibility of the culture, regardless of job performance. (You can learn more about their culture at Zappos's website.)

Some of their philosophies are based on books they have read such as Good to Great by Jim Collins and Tribal Leadership. They have a library at Zappos where they give books to employees. This is one way that Zappos is helping further educate their employees on some of the company's underlying philosophy. They also offer customers access to the Zappos Library, a further way to build customer relations and be innovative at the same time.